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THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF THE UNITED 

STATES. 


A PAPER READ AT THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIAL 
SCIENCE ASSOCIATION, AT NEW YORK, OCTOBER 26 , 1869 . 


BY 

AINSWORTH R. SPOFFORD, 

Librarian of Congress. 


Antiquarians must ever regard with interest the first 
efforts for the establishment of public libraries in the ISTew 
World. Like the earliest dawn of the morning light upon the 
prolonged darkness that preceded, comes the first ray of intel¬ 
ligence that streams from the world of letters upon the un¬ 
trodden wilderness of America. The first record of books 
dedicated to a public purpose in that part of this country now 
-occupied by the English-speaking race is, I believe, to be found 
in the following entry in the Records of the Virginia Com¬ 
pany of London: 

“ November 15, 1620.—After the Acts of the former Conrte 
were read, a straunger stept in presentinge a Mapp of S r Wal¬ 
ter Pawlighes contayninge a Descripcon of Guiana, and with 
the same fower great books as the Gnifte of one unto the Com¬ 
pany that desyred his name might not be made knowne, where¬ 
of one booke was a treatise of St. Augustine of the Citty of 
God translated into English, the other three greate Volumes 
wer the works of Mr. Perkins’ newlie corrected and amended, 
well books the Donor desyred they might be sent to the Col- 
ledge in Virginia there to remayne in saftie to the use of the 
collegiates thereafter, and not suffered at any time to be sent 
abroade or used in the meane while. For well so worthy a 
guifte my Lord of Southampton desyred the p’tie that pre¬ 
sented them to returne deserued thanks from himselfe and the 
rest of the Company to him that had so kindly bestowed 
them.” * 

The college here referred to was the first ever founded in 


* MS. Records of tlie Virginia Company, in tlie Library of Congress. 


2 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


America, and was seated at Henrico, at the confluence of the 
James River with the Cliickahominy. It was designed not 
only for the education of the Virginia settlers, hut to teach 
science and Christianity to the Indians. Large contributions 
were raised in England by Sir Edwin Sandys, and others of 
the Virginia Company, for its support. But the college and 
its incipient library were doomed to a speedy extinction. Like 
so many other brilliant “prospects for planting arts and learn¬ 
ing in America," it did not survive the perils of the colonial 
epoch. It was brought to a period by the bloody Indian mas¬ 
sacre of March 22, 1622, when three hundred and forty-seven 
of the Virginia settlers were slaughtered in a day, the new 
settlements broken up, and the expanding lines of civilization 
contracted to the neighborhood of Jamestown. 

Harvard College, founded in 1632, had the better fortune to 
survive the perils of the wilderness, and in 1638 its library 
was founded by the endowment of John Harvard, who be- 
qu eat lied to the new college his library and half of his estate. 
Soon afterwards enriched by the zealous contributions of Eng¬ 
lish Puritans and philosophers, of Berkeley, and Baxter, and 
Liglitfoot, and Sir Ivenelm Digby, the first university library 
in America, after a century and a quarter of usefulness, was 
totally destroyed with the college edifice in the year 1764 by 
fire. When we contemplate the ravages of this element, which 
has consumed so many noble libraries, destroying not onlv 
printed books of priceless value, but often precious manuscripts 
which are unique and irreplaceable, a lively sense of regret 
comes over us that these creations of the intellect, which should 
be imperishable, are even yet at the mercy of an accident in all 
the libraries of the world save a very few. The destruction of 
books in private hands is natural and inevitable enough, and 
goes on continually. Whole editions of books, now sought 
with avidity as the rarest volumes known to literature, have 
been gradually destroyed in innumerable fires, worn out in the 
hands of readers, used for waste paper by grocers and petty 
tradesmen, swallowed up in the sack of towns, or consumed by 
dampness, mould, or, in rare instances, by the remorseless 
tooth of time. Yet there have always existed public libraries 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


3 


enough, had they been fire-proof, to have preserved many 
copies of every hook bequeathed to the world, both before the 
invention of printing and since. But, when your insurance 
office is bankrupt, what becomes of the insured ? When nearly 
all our public libraries are so constructed as to invite the flames, 
the loss of so many books which have completely perished from 
the earth ceases to be wonderful. You speak of your fire¬ 
proof buildings; but what avails it to pile stone upon stone in 
your exterior, when all the interior is filled with wood, and the 
books surrounded on three sides with the most combustible 
material ? The Capitol at Washington was considered fire¬ 
proof when, in 1851, the Congressional Library was burned up 
in a night, less than 20,000 volumes being saved from the 
flames. There is only one path of safety, if we would avoid 
the risk of repeating those irreparable losses to history and lit¬ 
erature which are constantly occurring in the conflagration of 
libraries, the destruction of city halls and colleges, and the 
burning of State capitols with all their archives. Let the in¬ 
terior of every library building be encased in iron, the shelves 
being made of the same material. Then only will the con¬ 
tents be impregnably fire-proof, and the great enemy of liter- 
arv immortality will knock at their doors in vain. 

The growth of Harvard College library, from its second 
foundation a century ago, has been steady, though at no time 
rapid. Select and valuable in its principal contents, it has re¬ 
ceived numerous benefactions from the friends of learning, and 
promises to become the best, as it already is much the largest,, 
among the university libraries of the country. 

The year 1700 witnessed the birth of the first Hew York 
library open to public use. The Kev. John Sharp, then chap¬ 
lain of His Majesty’s forces in this city (it was in the days of 
good King William of Orange), bequeathed his private collec¬ 
tion of books to found a “ public library” in Hew York. The 
library thus organized was placed in charge of the corporation 
of the city, and has received occasional brief mention in the 
proceedings of the Common Council. It was increased in 1720 
by a gift from another English clergyman named Millington, 
who bequeathed his library to the Society for the Propagation 


4 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


of the Gospel in foreign parts, by which it was presented to 
the Corporation of Yew York, as the conditions ran, “ for the 
use of the clergy and gentry of New York and the neighboring 
provinces.” Unhappily, these select classes of the community 
do not appear to have greatly appreciated the gift, for the first 
city library of New York 1 anguished with little or no increase 
until 1754:, when a society of gentlemen undertook to found a 
public library by subscription, and succeeded so well that the 
city authorities turned over to them what remained of the 
Public City Library. This was the beginning of the Yew 
York Society Library, one of the largest of the proprietary 
libraries of the country, which now numbers 57,000 volumes. 
It was then, and for a long time afterwards, commonly known 
as “ The City Library.” In 1772, King George III., whose 
power over civil affairs in America still prevailed, granted it a 
charter under the title of “ The Yew York Society Library.” 
During the long occupation of this city by the British army, 
the books suffered from the wholesale pillage # of the soldiers. 
At the close of the war, the fragments of the library were 
gathered together, and the Society reorganized. The books 
grew to the aggregate number of 5,000 volumes in 1793. The 
Continental Congress profited by its stores, there being no 
other library open to their use; and the First Congress under 
the Constitution, which met in Yew York in 1789, received 
the free use of the books it contained. The Society Library 
has migrated five times, improving its quarters with each re¬ 
moval. Located in the City ILall until 1795, it went thence 
to Yassau Street, opposite the Post-Office, where it continued 
forty years. In 1836, it migrated to Chambers Street, and, in 
1840, to a building erected for its special use at the corner of 
Broadway and Leonard Street. In 1853 another removal took 
place to the Bible Llouse, in Astor Place, and it was finally de¬ 
posited, in 1856, in the elegant building erected for it in Uni¬ 
versity Place, where it now is. The library is conducted on 
the share system, the payment of twenty-five dollars, and an 
annual assessment of six dollars, giving any one the privilege 
of membership. Temporary subscribers of ten dollars per 
year are also permitted to draw books. 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


5 


The same year, 1700, in which the New York Library was 
founded, ten Connecticut ministers met together at New Ha¬ 
ven, each bringing a number of books, and saying, “ I give these 
books for the founding of a college in this colony.” Such was 
the foundation of Yale College, an institution that has done in¬ 
estimable service to the cause of letters, having been fruitful of 
writers of books, as well as of living contributions to the ranks 
of every learned profession. Thirty years later, we find the 
good Bishop Berkeley pausing from the lofty speculations which 
absorbed him, to send over to Yale College what was called 
u the finest collection of books that ever came together at one 
time into America.” For a century and a half the growth of 
this library was very slow, the college being oppressed with 
poverty, and numerous collateral uses being discovered for its 
funds. In 1819, the number of volumes had risen only to 
20,515, but it is cheering to relate that the last twenty years 
have witnessed a growth so rapid that in 1869 Yale College 
Library has 50,000 volumes, besides almost as many more in 
the various society libraries of the students. 

The fourth considerable library founded in the United States 
was due in a large degree to the industry and zeal for know¬ 
ledge of the illustrious Franklin. As unquestionably the first 
established proprietary library in America, the Library Com¬ 
pany of Philadelphia merits especial notice. Not even the 
dazzling splendor of the million-dollar bequest that has but 
recently fallen into its lap can eclipse the enlightened and 
far-seeing spirit which presided over its origin. Let us re¬ 
verently take a leaf out of the autobiography of the printer- 

statesman of Pennsvl vania: 

(/ 

“ And now I set on foot my first project of a public nature, 
that for a subscription library. 1 drew up the proposals, got 
them put into form by our great scrivener, Brockdeil, and by 
the help of my friends' in the Junto [the Junto was a club for 
mutual improvement, founded by Franklin] procured fifty 
subscribers at forty shillings each to begin with, and ten shil¬ 
lings a year for fifty years, the term our company was to con¬ 
tinue. AVe afterwards obtained a charter, the company being 
increased to one hundred; this was the mother of all the North 


6 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


American subscription libraries now so numerous. It is become 
a great tiling itself, and continually increasing. These libra¬ 
ries have improved the general conversation of the Americans, 
made the common tradesmen and farmers 'as intelligent as 
most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contri¬ 
buted in some degree to the stand so generally made through¬ 
out the colonies in defence of their privileges.” 

When this Philadelphia Library was founded, in 1731, not a 
single city or town in England possessed a subscription library. 
Even the library of the British Museum, since become the 
greatest collection of books in the world, save one,* was not 
opened until 1759, more than a quarter of a century afterwards. 
Although not designed as a public library of circulation, save 
to its own subscribers, the Philadelphia Library has been kept 
free to all for reference and consultation. The regulations 
under which its earliest librarian acted expressly “ permit any 
civil gentleman to peruse the books of the library in the libra¬ 
ry rooms.” The record of the gradual increase of the first 
Philadelphia Library from its first few hundred volumes, when 
Franklin was but twenty-five years of age, to its present rank 
as the second proprietary library in America, with 85,000 
volumes of books, is highly interesting. Its history, in fact, is 
to a large extent the history of intellectual culture in Philadel¬ 
phia, which remained, until the second decade in the present 
century, the foremost city of the Union in population, and, 
from 1791 to 1800, the seat of government of the United 
States. Its list of corporators has always borne the names of 
most of the men who have been eminent in science or letters 
in the Quaker City, and a large proportion of those of fortune 
and social distinction. The number of its shares which have 
descended in an unbroken line in the same family for genera¬ 
tions, is mqwecedentedly large. 

In 1751, James Logan, a man of liberal knowledge and emi¬ 
nent political ability, bequeathed to the city of Philadelphia 
his private library of 2,000 volumes, then valued at $10,000. 
Besides the books, he gave a suitable building for their re- 


* Tlie Bibliotlieque Imperiale at Paris. 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


7 


ception, and certain rents to constitute a fund for the pay of a 
librarian, and to increase the collection. The whole were 
vested by will, in trustees, for the use of the public for ever. 
After forty years’ very indifferent administration of the trust, 
during many of which the library remained unopened, the 
trustees, following the example of the city government of Yew 
York, turned over the only free public library of Philadelphia 
to a private corporation. An act was procured from the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania annexing the Loganian Library 
to that of the Library Company of Philadelphia, under certain 
restrictions, and it was opened to the public in If Of as a branch 
of that institution, and still remains so. 

The Philadelphia Library Company, in If74, voted that 
“ the o’entlemen who were to meet in Congress ” in that city 
should be furnished with such books as they might have occa¬ 
sion for; and the same privilege was exercised on the return 
of the Government to that city, in 1791, and until the removal 
of Congress to Washington in 1800. During the nine month's’ 
occupation of Philadelphia by the British army, it is refreshing 
to read that the conquerors lifted no spear against the Muses’ 
bower, but that “ the officers, without exception, left deposits, 
and paid hire for the books borrowed by them.” The collec¬ 
tion, in respect of early printed books, is one of the largest 
and most valuable in America, embracing many books and hies 
of newspapers which are to be found in no other public library. 
The selection of new books lias been kept singularly free from 
the masses of novels and other ephemeral publications which 
overload most of our popular libraries, and the collection, al¬ 
though limited in extent in every held, and purposely leaving 
special topics, such as the medical and natural sciences, to the 
scientific libraries which abound in Philadelphia, affords to the 
man of letters a good working library. The shares in the libra¬ 
ry cost forty dollars, with an annual assessment of four dol¬ 
lars to each stockholder. Besides, any person is free to consult 
books within the library, and to borrow most works belong¬ 
ing to it, upon deposit, a highly valuable privilege, which 
renders the absence of a free public library of circulation in the 
great city of Philadelphia less conspicuous. 


8 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


Within a week past, the great bequest of Doctor James- 
Rush to the Philadelphia Library of his whole property > 
valued at over $1,000,000, has been accepted by its stockhold¬ 
ers, by the bare majority of live votes in a poll of over live 
hundred. This lack of harmony is attributable to the fact 
that the bequest, so generous in itself, was hampered by the 
donor with numerous conditions, deemed by many friends of 
the library to be highly onerous and vexatious. Rot the least 
among these was the following, which is cited from the will 
itself: 

“ Let the library not keep cushioned seats for time-wasting 
and lounging readers, nor places for every-day novels, mind- 
tainting reviews, controversial politics, scribblings of poetry and 
prose, biographies of unknown names, nor for those teachers of 
disjointed thinking, the daily newspapers.” 

Here is one more melancholy instance of a broad and liberal 
bequest narrowly bestowed. The spirit which animated the 
respectable testator in attempting to exclude the larger part of 
modern literature from the library which his money was to 
benefit may have been unexceptionable enough. Doubtless 
there are evils connected with a public supply of frivolous and 
trifling literature; and perhaps our periodicals may be justly 
chargeable with devoting an undue proportion of their columns 
to topics of merely ephemeral interest. But it should never 
be forgotten that the literature of any period is and must be 
largely occupied with the questions of the day. Thus, and 
thus only, it becomes a representative literature, and it is pre¬ 
cious to posterity in proportion as it accurately reflects the 
spirit, the prejudices, and the personalities of a time which has 
passed into history, leaving behind it no living representatives. 
If we admit that the development of the humaii intellect at 
any particular period is worth studying, then all books are, or 
may become, useful. It is amazing that a person with any 
pretensions to discernment should denounce newspapers as 
unfitted to form a part of a public library. The best news¬ 
papers of the time are undoubtedly the best books of the time. 
The greater part of the published literature of our day is in no 
respect elevated above the daily journals, whether as regards 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


9 


dignity of subject, breadth of view, elevation of aim, or excel¬ 
lence of style. Many of these books have appeared for the 
first time in the columns of newspapers, and many others find 
their chief use, and are first reduced to order, condensation, 
and coherence, when distilled through the alembic of the daily 
press. A first-class daily journal is an epitome of the world, 
recording the life and the deeds of men, their laws and their 
literature, their politics and religion, their social and criminal 
statistics, the progress of invention and of art, the revolutions 
of empires, and the latest results of science. Grant that news- 
papers are prejudiced, superficial, unfair; so also are hooks. 
Grant that the journals often give place to things scurrilous 
and base; but can there be anything baser or more scurrilous 
than are suffered to run riot in books ? There is to be found 
hidden away in the pages of some books such filth as no man 
would dare to print in a newspaper, from fear of the instant 
wrath of the passers-by. 

I trust that you will pardon me if, in this apparent digres¬ 
sion from my theme, I have been betrayed into undue warmth ; 
but, when I consider the debt which libraries and literature 
alike owe to the daily and weekly press, it is difficult to char¬ 
acterize with patience the Parthian arrow flung at it from the 
grave of a querulous millionaire, who will owe to these very 
newspapers the greater part of his success and all of his repu¬ 
tation. The father of the respectable testator, Doctor Benja¬ 
min Push, has left on record many learned speculations con¬ 
cerning the signs and evidences of lunacy. We may now add 
to the number the vagaries of the author of a ponderous work 
on the human intellect, who gravely proposes to hand over to 
posterity an expurgated copy of the nineteenth century, with 
all its newspapers left out. 

The Library of Congress, or, as it was called in its first 
general catalogue in 1815, “ The Library of the United States,” 
was founded, in 1800, by the purchase of a thousand dollars’ 
worth of books by act of Congress. It had grown to the num¬ 
ber of only 3,000 volumes in 1814, when the British army made 
a bonfire of our national Capitol, and the library was consumed 
in the ruins. The first library of Congress being thus destroy- 


10 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


eel, Ex-President Jefferson, then living, involved in debt, and 
in his old age, at Monticello, offered his fine private library of 
6,700 volumes to Congress, through friends in that body, the 
terms of payment to be made convenient to the public, and the 
price tojbe^fixed by a committee. The proposition met with 
able advocacy and also with some warm opposition. It is illus¬ 
trative] of the crude conceptions regarding the uses of books 
which prevailed in the minds of some members, that the library 
was objected to on the somewhat incongruous grounds of em¬ 
bracing too many editions of the Bible, and a number of the 
Trench writers in sceptical philosophy. It was gravely pro¬ 
posed to pack up this portion of the library, and return it to 
the illustrious owner at Monticello, paying him for the remain¬ 
der. More enlightened counsels, however, prevailed, and the 
nation became possessed, for about $23,000, of a good basis for 
a’public library which might become worthy of the country. 
The collection thus formed grew by slow accretion until, in 
1851, it had accumulated 55,000 volumes. On the 24th 
of [December in that year, a defective flue in the Capitol 
set fire to the wood-work with which the whole library was 
surrounded, and the result was a conflagration, from which 
20,000 volumes only were saved. Congress at once appro¬ 
priated, with praiseworthy liberality, $75,000 for the purchase 
of new bookstand $92,500 for rebuilding the library room 
in solid iron; the first instance of the employment of that 
safe and permanent material, so capable of the lightest and 
most beautiful architectural effects, in the entire interior struc¬ 
ture of any public building? The appropriation of $75,000 
was principally expended in the purchase of standard English 
literature, including complete sets of many important periodi¬ 
cals, and a selection of the more costly works in science and 
the fine arts. In 1866, two wings, each as large as the central 
library, and constructed of the same fire-proof material, were 
added to it, and quickly filled by the accession, the same year 
and the following, of two large libraries, that of the Smith¬ 
sonian Institution, and the historical library of Peter Force, of 
Washington. The latter was the largest private library ever 
brought together in the United States, but its chief value con- 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


11 


sisted in its possession of a very great proportion of tlie books 
relating to tlie settlement, history, topography, and politics of 
America, its 45,000 pamphlets, its files of early newspapers of 
the Revolution, its early printed hooks, and its rich assemblage 
of maps and manuscripts, many of the latter being original 
autographs of the highest historical interest. The Smith¬ 
sonian library, the custody of which was accepted by Congress 
as a trust, is rich in scientific works in all the languages of 
Europe, and forms an extensive and appropriate supplement to 
the Library of Congress, the chief strength of which lies in 
jurisprudence, political science, and books relating to America. 
Yet no department of literature or science has been left unre¬ 
presented in its formation, and the fact has been kept steadily 
in view that the Library of the Government must become, 
sooner or later, a universal one. As the only library which is 
entitled to the benefit of the Copyright law, by which one 
copy of each publication for which the Government grants an 
exclusive right must be deposited in the Rational Library, 
this collection must become annually more important as an 
exponent of the growth of American literature. This wise 
provision of law prevents the dispersion or destruction of books 
that tend continually to disappear; a benefit to the cause of 
letters, the full value of which it requires some reflection to 
estimate. 

This Rational Library now embraces £83,000 volumes, be¬ 
sides about 50,000 pamphlets. It is freely open, as a library 
of reference and reading, to the whole people; but the books 
are not permitted to be drawn out, except by Senators and Re¬ 
presentatives for use at the seat of government. Two things it 
yet needs to complete its usefulness, both to our national legis¬ 
lature and to the j>eople by whose means it has been built up 
and sustained. First, the completion (now nearly accomplish¬ 
ed) of its printed catalogue of subjects, which will furnish a com¬ 
plete key to unlock its treasures; and, secondly, to be thrown 
open to readers during the evening as well as during the hours 
of business. Its value to the numerous class employed in the 
public service would thereby be incalculably increased; and, if 
"Washington is ever to become anything more than an insigni- 


12 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


ficant city, it should present every reasonable privilege and at¬ 
traction, both to residents and sojourners, which it is in the 
power of the Government to supply. 

The library of the Boston Athenaeum originated, in the 
year 1806, with a society of gentlemen of literary tastes, who 
aimed at creating a reading-room for the best foreign and 
American periodicals, together with a library of books. To 
this a gallery of art was subsequently added. The undertaking 
proved at once successful, leaving us to wonder why cultivated 
Boston, though abounding in special and parish libraries, 
should so long have done without a good general library; 
New York having anticipated her by fifty-two years, and 
Philadelphia by three-quarters of a century. The Athenaeum 
has been fortunate in its benefactors, and has been repeatedly 
enriched by the judicious generosity of its own members, 
rather than by the bequests of strangers. Its library is pecu¬ 
liarly rich in files of American newspapers, both old and new, 
and its collection of pamphlets is probably the largest in the 
country. In literature and science it embraces a heavy pro¬ 
portion of the best books, its total number of volumes being 
now reckoned at 100,000. Its collection of books, pamphlets, 
and newspapers relating to the recent civil war is among the 
completest known. The price of a share in the Athenaeum is 
three hundred dollars, a large sum when compared with that 
of other proprietary libraries; but it involves much more valu¬ 
able property-rights than any other. The annual assessment 
is five dollars to shareholders, who alone possess the right to 
draw books. The proprietors have also the power to grant 
free admission to others, and the library and reading-room are 
thus thrown open for reference to a very wide range of readers. 

The history of the Astor Library, founded by a bequest 
made in 1839, though not opened until 1854, has been made 
too familiar by repeated publication to need repetition here. 
The generous founder gave two per cent, out of his fortune of 
$20,000,000 to create a free public library for the city which 
had given him all his wealth. The gift was a splendid one, 
greater than had ever before been given in money to found a 


13 


OF TIIE UNITED STATES. 

library. Moreover, the $400,000 of Mr. Astor, twenty-five 
years ago, appeared to be, and perhaps was, a larger sum than 
four millions in the Yew York of to-day. Yet it remains true 
that the bequest was but one-fiftietli part of the fortune of the 
donor, and that the growth and even the proper accommoda¬ 
tion ot the library must have stopped, but for the spontaneous 
supplementary gifts of the principal inheritor of his vast 
wealth. These, fortunately for Yew York, have been neither 
few nor small. When it is considered how noble a collection 
of books is here brought together, how many of the costliest 
works in every department of art and science are opened freely 
for general consultation, how encyclopaedical and yet how 
select is the library, it may seem invidious to remark that Yew 
Y ork has not yet realized from the Astor bequest, what the 
terms of the will would seem to call for, “a public library, 
accessible at all reasonable times and hours, for general use, 
free of expense to persons resorting thereto.” The fact that 
the people of this city enjoy in the Cooper Institute, through 
the wise and liberal endowment of a private citizen, a free 
reading-room filled with the best periodicals, American and 
foreign, and open to all comers both day and evening, renders 
the somewhat stringent regulations of its only free public 
library the more conspicuous. Doubtless there would be some 
inconvenience and expense in throwing open the doors of the 
Astor Library during those evening hours when alone it is 
possible for most readers to avail themselves of its stores. But 
there are no difficulties which could not readily be surmounted, 
certainly none to be compared with the existing loss and de¬ 
privation of intellectual aid which is sustained by so many. Is 
it fitting that this great temple of learning should be perma¬ 
nently isolated from the mass of students as well as of general 
readers? The public regards with permanent favor those in¬ 
stitutions alone which answer the ends of the highest utility; 
and the just pride which every Yew Yorker feels in the Astor 
free library is tempered by the sad reflection that it is deemed 
necessary to close the gates of knowledge punctually half an 
hour before the sun goes down. 

While no library in America has yet reached 200,000 
volumes, there are more than twenty in Europe, if we may 


14 


TIIE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


put faith in statistics, which have passed that number. Some 
of these, it is true, are merely repositories of ancient and medi¬ 
aeval literature, with a considerable representation of the 
books of the last century, and but few accessions from the 
more modern press. Such, for the most part, are the numer¬ 
ous libraries of Italy, while others, like the Library of the 
British Museum, in London, and the Imperial Library, at 
Paris, are about equally rich in ancient and modern literature. 
The latter library, which is at present the largest collection in 
the world, possesses over 900,000 volumes, besides 500,000 
pamphlets; while the British Museum Library has now more 
than 750,000 volumes. The one great advantage which Euro¬ 
pean libraries possess over American consists in the stores of 
ancient literature which the accumulations of the past have 
given them. This advantage, so far as manuscripts and early 
printed books are concerned, can never be overcome. With 
one or two hundred thousand volumes as a basis, what but utter 
neglect can prevent any library from becoming a great and 
useful institution ? The most moderate share of discrimina¬ 
tion, applied to the selection of current literature, will keep up 
the character of the collection as a progressive one. But with 
nothing at all as a basis, as most of our large American libra¬ 
ries have started, the rate of progress seems slow, and the 
results hitherto small. 

In the “American Almanac” for 1837 was published the 
earliest statistical account of American libraries which I have 
found. It is confined to a statement of the numerical contents 
of twenty public and university libraries, each containing over 
10,000 volumes. The largest library in the United States at 
that date (thirty-two years ago) was that of the Philadelphia 
Library Company, which embraced 44,000 volumes. The first 
organized effort to collect the full statistics of libraries in the 
United States was made, in 1849, by the late Professor C. C. 
Jewett, then of the Smithsonian Institution, and the results 
were published in 1851, under the auspices of that institution, 
in an octavo volume of 207 pages. It contains interesting 
notices of numerous libraries, only forty of which, however, 
contained as many as 10,000 volumes each. In 1859, Mr. W. 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


15 


J. Pliees, of the Smithsonian Institution, published “ A Manu¬ 
al of Public Libraries, Institutions, and Societies in the United 
States,’' a large volume of 687 pages, filled with statistical in¬ 
formation in great detail, and recording the number of volumes 
in 1338 libraries. This work was an expansion of that of 
Professor Jewett. The next publication of the statistics of 
American libraries, of an official character, was published in 
“The National Almanac” for the year 1861, pp. 58-62, and 
was prepared by the writer of this paper. It gives the statis¬ 
tics of 101 libraries, numbering 10,000 volumes and upwards, 
exhibiting a gratifying progress in all the larger collections, 
and commemorating the more advanced and vigorous of the 

O o 

new libraries which had sprung into life. 

I have prepared a table of the numerical contents of the ten 
largest libraries in the country in 1869, for a portion of which 
I am indebted to Justin Winsor, Esq., Superintendent of the 
Poston Public Library, whose next annual report will con¬ 
tain much information regarding the comparative statistics of 
libraries: 


1. Library of Congress, Washington,. 183,000 

2. Poston Public Library, Poston,. 153,000 

3. Astor Library, New York,. 138,000 

4. Harvard College Library, Cambridge, .... 118,000 

5. New York Mercantile Library, New York, . . 104,500 

6. Poston Athenaeum Library,. 100,000 

7. Philadelphia Library Company,. 85,000 

8. New York State Library, Albany,. 76,000 

9. New York Society Library, New York, . . . 57,000 

10. Yale College Library, New Haven,. 50,000 


The libraries of the United States naturally divide them¬ 
selves into classes, according to the agencies by winch they 
are founded, and the purposes which they are intended to 
subserve. First, there come the proprietary libraries, which 
number many of the largest and best—notably, the Poston 
Athenaeum Library, the New York Society Library, and the 
Library Company of Philadelphia. The numerous mercan- 






16 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


tile libraries are properly a branch of the proprietary, though 
depending mostly upon annual subscriptions. The earliest 
of these was the Boston Mercantile Library, founded in 1820, 
and followed closely by the New York Mercantile Library, 
established the same year, the Philadelphia Mercantile in 1821, 
and the Cincinnati Mercantile in 1835. Such subscription libra¬ 
ries are, from the nature of the case, more largely composed 
of ephemeral books, known as light reading, than any others. 
Next we have the professional libraries, law, medical, scientific, 
and, in a few instances, theological. These supply a want of 
each of these important professions seldom met by the public 
collections, and are proportionably valuable. Then come pub¬ 
lic libraries, founded by individual bequest, of which the prin¬ 
cipal are the Astor Library, at New York, the Watkinson Re¬ 
ference Library, at Hartford, and the Peabody Institute Libra¬ 
ries, of Baltimore, Maryland*, and Peabody, Massachusetts. 
Then there are the various State Libraries, founded at the pub¬ 
lic charge, and designed primarily for the use of the respective 
legislatures of the States. The earliest of these is the New 
Hampshire State Library, established about 1790, and the 
largest is the New York State Library, at Albany, founded in 
1818, now embracing 76,000 volumes, and distinguished alike 
by the value of its stores and the liberality of its management. 
Every State in the Union has now at least a legislative libra¬ 
ry, although the most of them consist chiefly of laws and legis¬ 
lative documents, with a few works of reference superadded; 
and their direct usefulness to the public is therefore very cir¬ 
cumscribed. The New York State Library is, however, a 
model of what a great public library should be in the capital 
of a State. In it are gathered a great proportion of the best 
books in each department of literature and science, while inde¬ 
fatigable efforts have been made to enrich it in whatever re¬ 
lates to American history and polity. Its reading-room is 
freely open to the public during twelve hours daily. 

Of parish libraries, and the libraries of Sunday-schools and 
Bible classes throughout the country, there is no call to speak, 
since they are, in no sense, public libraries of resort. The ag¬ 
gregate number of volumes contained in them has been rough- 


17 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


ly estimated at from five to six millions; but such statistics are 
purely conjectural, and of no possible value. 

Of the school-district library system, and its wide exten¬ 
sion in some of our States, little is publicly known. I have 
prepared a summary of the Stkte legislation by which these li¬ 
braries are created and charged upon the school taxation fund 
ot the respective States, but there is no room for its detail here. 
This free-school library system, originated by New York in 
1838, has now extended to eleven States, namely: Maine, 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
New York, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. 

Of city and town libraries, created by voluntary taxation, a 
•class of libraries started in Great Britain no earlier than the 
year 1850, there is as yet little to be recorded in this country 
outside of New England. This system of creating libraries 
proceeds upon the principle that intellectual enlightenment is 
as much a concern of the local government as sanitary regula- 
tions or the public morality. Society has an interest that is 
common to all classes in the means that are provided toward 
the education of the people. Among these means free town 
or city libraries are one of the most useful. Massachusetts, in 
no less than fifty of her towns and cities, has recognized the 
principle that public books are just as important to the general 
welfare as public lamps. What the public need are libraries 
open to the peojfie as a matter of right, and not, as in New 
York and other cities, as a matter of favor. 

The largest library in the country, save one, owes its origin 
and success to this principle, combined with large private 
munificence. The Boston Public Library is unquestionably 
the most widely useful collection of books open to the public 
in this country. Of all the great collections, it is the only one 
which lends out books free of charge to all citizens. Instituted 
in 1852, its career has been one of rapid progress and ever- 
widening usefulness. I shall be the more readily pardoned for 
not dwelling upon it at length, as the facts regarding it have 
been more widely published than those relating to any other 
library. 


2 


18 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


What part of literature should our public libraries embrace ? 
is a question of commanding interest. The answer is to be 
sought in the final aim of each. It is certainly important to 
secure, in every library which cannot be universal in its char¬ 
acter, the best hooks in each department of literature and 
science, and the best hooks only. Yet the difficulties of selec¬ 
tion are of the most embarrassing character, and are annually 
increasing. While a professional library has its closely-defined 
limitations, and will he likely to purchase only the books which 
contain some positive contribution to knowledge in its special 
field, the libraries of miscellaneous reading, on the other hand, 
are left without chart or compass, to gather at hap-liazard from 
the immense mass of worthy and worthless books of which the 
modern press is fruitful. None of the so-called “ Courses of 
English reading” which have been adventured as guides to 
inexperienced book collectors and students appear to he of 
value. They are all at least a quarter of a century in arrear 
as regards modern literature, and the largest and most pre¬ 
tentious of them, that of Pycroft, affords a model to he avoid¬ 
ed in its principal contents, as well as in its style of composi¬ 
tion. 

The only entirely safe counsel that can he given is too 
conservative for the current wants of ' any library which aims 
at even a moderate degree of popularity. To await deliber¬ 
ately the verdict of the years, after the well-known Horatian 
maxim, or even to delay adding the latest novelties to its 
attractions until six months have scantly flown (and with 
them, perchance, borne many flaming literary reputations into 
oblivion), would be too much to expect of any library which 
derives its patronage from a miscellaneous public. Yet some 
selection must indispensably be made, as well of the older 
literature as of the current issues of the press. There is great¬ 
ly needed, for the use of libraries that are springing up with 
such rapidity in all parts of the country, a manual which 
should he carefully representative of the books which have 
best sustained the test of enlightened criticism. It is grati¬ 
fying to know that the labors of this Association will shortly 
be turned in this direction. 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


19 


A prominent journal of this city recently proposed wliat 
it was pleased to term a “weeding out” of the National 
Library at Washington, upon the suggestion of the impend¬ 
ing need, in a few years’ time, of more space to accommo¬ 
date its fast increasing stores. Weeding is a healthful pro¬ 
cess, doubtless, whether viewed agriculturally or intellectual¬ 
ly : but it may be pertinent to ash, When it comes to be applied 
to our great libraries, who is to superintend the process, and 
what guarantee have we that it will be judiciously performed ? 
Wliat shall be thrown out as useless lumber, and what retain¬ 
ed and cherished as the pure gold of literature or science? 
Do learned editors ever reflect whether their own works, in 
multitudinous volumes, in grand folio, might not perchance be 
the first to go out under the “ weeding ” process ? Yet no 
writer or student who has hunted for facts through many 
libraries in vain, can underrate the immense value of complete 
files of the daily press. It is easy to stigmatize as u trash” the 
greater mass of the books with which our libraries are crowd¬ 
ed. It is easy to find self-constituted censors, who would un¬ 
dertake the “ weeding ” of them with alacrity; but who shall 
censure the censors, who certify to the public the justice of 
their judgment? Nay, is there any tolerable degree of cer¬ 
tainty that they would be able long to agree with one an¬ 
other ? 

When the priest and the barber, in the immortal romance 
of Cervantes, undertook to weed the library of Don Quixote 
of those accursed books which had done him so much mischief, 
they met with some unexpected obstacles. Not every book 
that the priest condemned was sacrificed by the barber, and 
not every book that went overboard by the joint consent of 
both reached, the flames upon a second examination. 

Be as exclusive as you will with your own private collec¬ 
tion ; it is your right, your duty, and your interest to winnow 
it with the utmost care; but a great public library lias, or 
should have, for one of its ends to keep the very books which 
smaller ones have neither space, nor money, nor inclination 
for. The only safe rule for the private library is, exclusive¬ 
ness; that of the public one, inclusiveness. What is husks 


20 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


and straw to one reader is solid pabulum to another; nay,, 
that which appears trash to you to-day may, next year, turn 
out to have a wholly unexpected value. I have seen a great 
scholar kindle into eloquence over a dingy volume of contro¬ 
versial divinity, which appeared to me to contain nothing hut 
the most dismal platitudes. The credulous world has mourn¬ 
ed for twelve centuries the loss of a fabulous Alexandrian 
library of 700,000 volumes, burned by the Caliph Omar, with a 
fictitious rhetorical dilemma in his mouth. Yet the hyperbole 
of antiquity is realized in a modern editor, who would apply 
the torch before our largest library has yet reached two 
hundred Thousand. 

The idea that books are valueless except it be to be read 
through, is one that could find a lodgment only in an incon¬ 
siderate mind. “ We need more books,” said a learned pro¬ 
fessor of an American college to a rich merchant, who had 
helped to fill the small but well-chosen library. “ More 
books!” said the merchant. “ Why, have you read through 
all you have already ? ” 

‘Ao ; I never expect to read them all.” 

“ Why, then, do you want more ? ” 

“ Pray, sir, did you ever read your dictionary through ? ” 

“ Certainly not.” 

“ Well, a library is my dictionary.” 

The learned Bishop Huet said that all which has been writ¬ 
ten since the beginning of the world might easily be contained 
in nine or ten folio volumes , provided nothing were said but 
once. This proviso is the key to the vast “ Copia librorum ” 
which makes the despair of scholars. So long as men go on 
repeating one another, so long will this superfoetation of litera¬ 
ture continue. You may put all the ancient classics, both 
Greek and Latin, into a single case of very moderate dimen¬ 
sions ; but the manifold echoes and reechoes of the ancients- 
which fill these twenty centuries give point to the saying of 
Burton, the anatomist of melancholy, that “the most of litera¬ 
ture is but the pouring out of one bottle into another.” 

It was a whimsical remark of the great satirist, Rabelais, 
that “ one ought to buy all the bad books that come out, because 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


21 


tliey will never be printed again.” Of the new works pub¬ 
lished in any given century, how few ever arrive at the honor 
of a republication at all ? And of those that are printed for a 
few successive years in vast editions, how many are thought 
worthy of a reprint by the century succeeding ? And will any 
one learned in the history of literature tell us how many, out 
of all the candidates crowding after immortality, ever reach it, 
by the suffrage of each succeeding century, calling for ever new 
editions ? Is not the fate of at least ninety-nine in the hundred 
writers a swift passport to oblivion, or, at the least, a place 
among the hecatombs of neglected volumes which slumber 
upon the shelves of the great libraries of the world? Yet 
Thomas Fuller quaintly tells us that “learning hath gained 
most by those books by which the printers have lost.” ^And 
many a lonely scholar has fed his eager brain upon the obscure 
wisdom of some forgotten volume, until his own genius has 
haply quickened into eloquence, or flowered into song. 

The essential falsity of many of the ex cathedra judgments 
so often pronounced upon literature is well illustrated in the 
saying which became a proverb with the scholars of the eight¬ 
eenth century: 

“ If you would know what books are best worth reading, 
look in the Index Expurgatorius.” 

By a law as inevitable as gravitation, the books of every 
period tend continually to find their proper level. The judg¬ 
ment of mankind is made up upon each work, although it may 
not be executed speedily. Ho permanent rank in the hierarchy 
of letters is ever settled by chance, any more than by excom¬ 
munication. Very vain is the endeavor to write down any 
author. 

“ Wlio writes by fate, the critics shall not kill, 

Nor all the assassins in the great Jreview:] 

Who writes by luck, his blood some hack shall spill,] 

Some ghost whom a mosquito might run through.” 

The true question to ask respecting any book is, Has Jt 
helped any human soul ? If yes, then it has as good a right to 
be, and as much honor in being, as any of those living creatures 
of God, myriads of whom are born and die without demon- 

:i 

V* 

* • ,1 > 

' r \ 

( i* * 


22 


THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


strating to tlie majority of tlieir fellows any adequate reason 
for their existence. 

The absence of any really extensive library at any one of 

onr great cities is still seriously felt by the writers of the 

country. Neither in New York nor elsewhere have we a 
«/ 

single public library adequate to satisfy the researches of 
scholars. The late John Quincy Adams undertook the col¬ 
lection of all the authorities cited by Gibbon, in his “ History 
of the Homan Empireand he has recorded that less than 
half of them were then to be found in onr largest libraries. 
Our historical writers have all been driven abroad, not only 
for original materials, but for multitudes of printed books and 
works of reference. Add to this, that few of our best libraries 
are open during those hours most employed by students, and 
the array of impediments in the path of the scholar becomes 
appalling. If he is a man of fortune, he will of course collect 
nearly all books in his special field, rather than be dependent 
upon the uncertain aid of public libraries. In no country are 
there found more numerous and more liberal collectors of pri¬ 
vate libraries than in the United States. The literary trea¬ 
sures which have been amassed outside the walls of public 
institutions are so great as continually to awaken the wonder 
and excite the envy of the latter. When we hear of the 
100,000 volumes of the Boston Athenaeum, or the 138,000 of 
the Astor, or of the 183,000 of the Library of Congress, we 
are accustomed to think of all private collections as very small 
and imperfect in the comparison. But, taken en masse , it is 
not to be doubted that the private libraries very far outrun 
the public ones in their aggregate of volumes, while, in respect 
of rare and costly books, there are multitudes of works in 
private hands of which no public library in the country pos¬ 
sesses a copy. The plain suggestion to be drawn from these 
facts is twofold: first, that more interest should be manifested 
by collectors and students in completing our public libraries 
by voluntary bequests of their stores; and, secondly, that the 
managers of our leading libraries should be constantly and 
vigilantly on the alert to secure the needful volumes that 
wmuld complete them in any department of letters. No ade- 


OF THE UNITED STATES. 


23 


quate history of English literature, nor even of any one of its 
departments, could he written in America, for the one suffi¬ 
cient reason that the hooks do not here exist. None of our 
largest collections is sufficiently representative either of the 
history, the poetry, the fiction, the philosophy, or the theology 
of English literature (in which, of course, the American is 
meant to be included) to afford materials to the critic and his¬ 
torian on which to base his judgments. We can hut conclude, 
in summing up the results of any careful enquiry into the 
history and condition of our American libraries, that, while 
much has already been done, much the greater part remains 
to do. 



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